Published: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 10:30 AM.

DIXON — Dixon’s volleyball team got something of an education in its season opener, and coach Heather Moore plans on re-enforcing the lesson when the Bulldogs return to practice after today’s match at Richlands.

The Bulldogs, who struggled with their service game and return as well as keeping their kills inbounds, lost 3-0 to Wilmington Christian, which seemed to cover every inch of the court to beat Dixon 25-12, 25-18, 25-15 in the nonconference match Monday night.

“That’s a fantastic team. They won that game far and square. They didn’t make many mistakes,” Moore said. “But I don’t want to play easy teams and have a great record and then go into conference and play tough teams and get blown away.

“They need some of this so that they can step back a little bit and go, ‘OK, we have things we need to work on.’ I’d rather do that now than October.”

Three areas stood out for the Bulldogs where they struggled. Dixon had a bevy of unforced errors, especially with their hitters slamming the ball long against WCA’s blanket floor coverage.

The Bulldogs also lost the battle at the net to the smaller Patriots, and finally Dixon didn’t have an ace and struggled serving and returning serve.

The reason for many of the problems was WCA moves so well all over the floor, Moore said.

DIXON — Dixon’s volleyball team got something of an education in its season opener, and coach Heather Moore plans on re-enforcing the lesson when the Bulldogs return to practice after today’s match at Richlands.

The Bulldogs, who struggled with their service game and return as well as keeping their kills inbounds, lost 3-0 to Wilmington Christian, which seemed to cover every inch of the court to beat Dixon 25-12, 25-18, 25-15 in the nonconference match Monday night.

“That’s a fantastic team. They won that game far and square. They didn’t make many mistakes,” Moore said. “But I don’t want to play easy teams and have a great record and then go into conference and play tough teams and get blown away.

“They need some of this so that they can step back a little bit and go, ‘OK, we have things we need to work on.’ I’d rather do that now than October.”

Three areas stood out for the Bulldogs where they struggled. Dixon had a bevy of unforced errors, especially with their hitters slamming the ball long against WCA’s blanket floor coverage.

The Bulldogs also lost the battle at the net to the smaller Patriots, and finally Dixon didn’t have an ace and struggled serving and returning serve.

The reason for many of the problems was WCA moves so well all over the floor, Moore said.

“Nothing hits the floor. It’s hard to get kills against them because they’re scrappy. They always are. They’re not a very tall team, but they certainly got up and blocked. They put hands on the ball and nothing hit the floor,” she said.

“So they forced us to make errors, and unfortunately we made lots of them because they didn’t make many, which made it tough for us. We unfortunately didn’t capitalize when they did send up a free ball to find a place a put it for a kill.”

Not that there weren’t some bright spots.

Moore liked how her team adjusted on the fly to improve its passing as the match went on while also producing scoring runs in which the Bulldogs were able to come up with kills that stayed in bounds. Still, Moore agreed, her “hitters struggled a lot tonight. We hit a lot of balls out that we don’t normally do.”

Dixon led early in the opening set at 2-1 and 3-2, but the Patriots went on a 9-1 run to take command at 11-4. The Bulldogs never got closer than six after that, and Morgan Sullivan clinched the first set with one of her 13 kills.

With Zenora Saelua coming up with six kills, including three in a row, Dixon led for much of the second set and was up 18-15 when the Patriots rallied, scoring the final 10 points — seven coming off Dixon errors.

WCA jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third set, although Dixon did rally to within two twice (12-10 and 13-11), but the Patriots finished the set and match off with an 11-4 run that included three aces by Sullivan to give WCA three of its final four points.

“We were a little off,” Moore said. “We didn’t play as well today as we played on Saturday (at the Onslow County Jamboree). But they didn’t give up. We made some runs. They’re not a team that’s once it gets to 24 they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re done.’ They’re going to keep pushing.”